Associate Professor Mark Thomas An "astonishingly radical change in technology has saved the lives of people with HIV" over the past three decades of the HIV epidemic, according to an HIV specialist who has cared for many of those with the virus in Auckland. "I look back to the first years of the epidemic with sadness and pain," Associate Professor Mark Thomas told those assembled for a day-long conference of clinicians and others involved in HIV prevention and treatment currently underway at Auckland Hospital. In the late 1980s and early '90s "50% of those diagnosed with HIV died within a year of their diagnosis," he recalled. For those patients, predominantly gay and bi men, "the experience of having HIV was just a continuous, relentless slide towards death." By contrast "we now have access to a plethora of drugs which have become available over the past twenty years... thanks to the pharamaceutical companies who have done a remarkable job," he said. He noted that he ready availability of viral load testing which provided a quick and accurate indication on whether a patient's medications were working and whether they are being taken reliably "gives us amazing confidence" when monitoring patients. "Now," Thomas noted with evident satisfaction, "deaths are rare." But Thomas raised a problem area of access and adherence to medications with problems becoming apparent amongst those with drug and alcohol issues and those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Associate Professor Nigel Dickson, an Epidemiologist at the University of Otago, says that the number of new infections diagnosed in recent years is the lowest the gay and bi men's community has achieved in 19 years. He believes a slight rise in annual diagnoses in 2014 may not represent a significant overall increase in diagnoses,” but it's too early to tell," he said. Dickson says a recent marked increase in diagnoses amongst Asian men who have sex with men is likely to be a result in a general demographic change in the country. In the 2010-2014 period 344 new infections were diagnosed in gay and bi men of European origin, 50 were Maori, 19 Pacific Islanders, 83 Asians and no Africans. Dickson noted that New Zealand's success in HIV prevention gives reason to categorise our epidemic amongst men who have sex with men as "under control" compared to other comparable nations. However, warnings were sounded of activities and trends which could easily see the HIV epidemic soar again. Chemsex, especially the use of the drug P, hooking up through online services and any drop in the level of condom use were all issues which need to be closely watched, the conference was told.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 8th May 2015 - 3:30pm